Mechanical feeding apparatus for shaft blast-furnaces.



F. S. SANDERSON MECHANICAL FEEDING APPARATUS FOR SHAFT BLAST FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED 00123, 1911.

1,070,922, Pa tented Aug; 19, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IIIII-IIIIIH! 6 Witnesses: [nventofi W W210i JJ'd rzdemwv AtorvwysCOLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 120., WASHINGTON. I:v c.

F. S. SANDERSON. MECHANICAL FEEDING APPARATUS FOR SHAFT BLAST FURNACES.APPLIOATION FILED 0OT.23, 1911.

1 70,922, Patented Aug. 19, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Abtorrzeya COLUMBIA PLANOCIRAPH cO.,WAsHINn1'aN. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK SEABORNE SANDERSON, OF MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, AS-

SIGNOR TO THE MOUNT LYELL MINING AND RAILWAY QOMPAN LIMITED, OF

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.

MECHANICAL FEEDING APPARATUS FOR SHAFT BLAST-FURNACES.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FPEDERIOK SEABORNESANDERSON, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residingat No. 60 Queen street, Melbourne, in the British State of Victoria,Commonwealth of Australia, formerly of Queenstown, Tasmania, engineerand draftsman, have invented new and useful Improvements in MechanicalFeeding Apparatus for Shaft Blast-Furnaces, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for charging orfeeding ore or other material at the requisite point or position to thethroat of shaft blast furnaces and the like. 7 i

The improvements consist mainly of the introduction into mechanicalfurnace feeders of a series of movable adjustable charging or feedingplates upon which the furnace charges are placed or dumped, and overwhich charging or feeding plates a mechanically operated sliding framingcarrying pusher plates is arranged as shown and described in my UnitedStates Patent No. 879,839, which serve to move the furnace charge alongthe surfacerof the aforesaid adjustable charging plates and push it overtheir free edges into the furnace shaft. The said charging plates alsoserve the purpose of distributing i. e. locating the components of thecharges at desired points on the upper surface of the smelting column.

Theimmediate result of the introduction of these improvements has notbeen merely a saving of labor but the emancipation from p p thestupidity, carelessness, recklessness and bias of the feeders who arealways diflicult to control. The furnace campaigns have been very muchlengthened and there is no doubt that, if hand feeding or some other ofthe ordinary methods of mechanical feeding were again resorted to inwhich the materials are dumped en masse into the top of the furnaces thelength of our campaigns would be cut in two, and the furnaces would notrun so well.

The improvements will now be fully described aided by a reference to theaccompanying sheets of drawing in which Figure 1 is a side sectionalview of the invention as arranged at one side of a furnace shaft, and,Fig. 2 a half plan of the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 23, 1911.

Patented Aug. 19,1913. Serial No. 656,169.

same as arranged at both sides of the furnace shaft, while, Fig. 3 is aside sectional view on a larger scale of the details of the chargingplate, adjusting gear and pusher plates, and, Fig. 4 a plan of same.

In my invention the adjustable charge or feed plates A are arranged ateither side of the furnace throat or opening B, above the top of thesmelting column, and accessible to the means used to supply the chargesor smelting mixture desired to be fed into the furnace. The edges of theplates A nearest the furnace opening, may coincide with the edgesthereof, or may be adjusted to reach over said edges into the furnaceshaft to any desired position above the smelting column.

The aforesaid charging plates A, which form an important part of theapparatus, may be of steel, iron, or other suitable material, and may bewater cooled if necessary, said plates A. may either consist of a singleplate or be built up of a series of plates suitably secured together,and of a size depend ent upon the size of the furnace opening. Each setof charging plates A is supported upon a number of rollers 0, preferablyin the manner shown in the drawing, in such a position that a forward orbackward adjusting' movement may be given to them by operating the endsD of the screws D which are situated beneath the outside edge of theplates. It will be seen that each set of plates may be moved toward thecenter of the fur nace equally on each side, or on one side more than onthe other, as the smelting operation may require, also that suchmovement or adjustment may be performed while the furnace is in blast.

The mechanically operated pushing appliance is similar to the oneforming part of my United States Patent No. 879,839, and it is built upof two parts, tied together by rods J, which lie under the chargingfloor, each part of the pushing appliance consist.- ing of a movablemetal frame work E arranged on either side of the furnace throat, thusmaking a connected rectangular frame work. These frames are constructedpreferably of the form shown in the drawing, each frame is built uprigidly of angle iron, steel or other suitable material, one part of theframe being connected to the piston rod of a hydraulic ram F as shown,or other suitable mechanism which will push and pull it alternatelyforward and backward over the surface of the above mentioned feed platesA. This framework l) is supported upon rollers ti and two or more flaned wheels H, the latter being placed outside of the area covered by theframe proper and carried on lateral extensions of the back stays of theframe, the wheels H are for the purpose of guiding the movement of theframe and run on fixed guide rails l in a direction transversely of thefurnace.

The front beam of each framework E is parallel, with the furnaceopening, and has a continuous line of narrow plates, blades or scrapersK, which are also similar to those described in my prior United StatesPatent No. 879,839, the said scrapers being attached to itby hinges L,and resting on an angle iron bearer L in such a manner as to form anunbroken line of inclined shovel or push blades, each plate having thenecessary play upward off the feed plate A. Said push plates are hung ata suitable an gle to the charging plates, which they just touch.

The two frames being coupled together, are operated conjointly, but inan alternate manner, so that, while one frame with its set of pushplates, is propelling the charge toward the furnace on the one side, theother frame and set of push plates are being withdrawn and so that whenthe limit to travel is reached. one frame has pushed its charge into thefurnace and the other frame has receded. In this manner the next chargeintended to be placed into the furnace may be spread out on the emptyfeed plates opposite and be pushed into the furnace on the reversal ofthe operating mechanism. In the event of the inside edge of the feedplates being run into a position a greaterdistance within the furnaceshaft than is accessible by the stroke of the push plates, a narrowridge of material will be left near the edge of the plate, but a newcharge coming on will push this forward over the edge of the feed plate,so that no irregularity of any moment occurs in the feeding of thefurnace.

The combination of the mechanical feeding device and the adjustable feedplate herein described permits of controlling the distribution of thevarious materials charged into the furnace in every manner possible byhand feeding, with the saving of labor and the insurance of greaterreliability and certainty, and in a more effective and accurate way thanis possible by cmitrivances that dump, or slide, the charge direct intothe furnace, without careful dropping over a fixed edge. There is nopossibility of the material shooting into the furnace beyond its mark,and tluis reaching a different point from that at which it is intendedto be placed or fed.

The above mentioned apparatus permit-s of charging the smelting mixtureevenly along the entire length of the furnace or in any quantity at anypoint alongside of or away from the long walls of the furnace or offeeding of any single component of the furnace charge into the furnacewherever it is desired to place it. The action of the pushing device isconstant, and does not admit of variation being purely mechanical. Theadjustment of the feed plates however, is directed by, and variable,according to observation of behavior and distribution of the fallingmaterial as it reaches the top of the furnace column, and thisintroduces the necessary pliability into the system of feeding, mostimportant for a perfect control of the feeding operation. Also, bymoving the plates nearer to or farther from the center of the furnacethe formation of ridges and gullets may be controlled and even be whollyavoided, and the distribution of the coarse and fine particles of thecharges regulated in a suitable manner.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is 1-- 1. In a mechanical ore feeder for blastfurnaces, the combination of a series of push plates or scrapers,assembled in front of each oppositely located furnace feed opening, eachline of push plates being supported by hinges upon a frame carried onwheels which support the said frame above the charging floor, the saidframe being capable of being worked to and from the furnace feedopenings by hydraulic ram mechanism, devices for moving said chargingfloor relatively to the mouth of the furnace so as to control thedistribution of the charge during the operation of the hydraulic rammechanism.

2. In a mechanical ore feeder for blast furnaces, the combination of aseries of push plates or scrapers assembled in line one in front of eachoppositely located furnace feed opening, each line of push plates beingsupported upon a frame carried on wheels which convey said frame abovethe charging floor and about the furnace, and means for recim'ocatingsaid frame to and from the furnace feed opening, manually operateddevices for moving said charging floor relatively to the mouth of thefurnace opening so as to control the distribution of the charge duringthe operation of the reciprocating means.

3. A mechanical ore feed for furnaces, the combination of a chargingfloor, plates assembled in. parallel lines one in front of eachoppositely located furnace opening, said plates being hinged to suitablemovable f'ames, wheels attached to said movable frames for conveyingsaid frames above the charging floor and about the furnace by rodsconnecting said frames together, and In testimony whereof I have signedmy hydraulic mechanism for reciprocating said name to this specificationin the presence of 10 frames to am} from the furnace feed opentwosubscribing Witnesses.

in s, devices or moving said char 'in floor rel afively to the mouth ofthe furnace open- FREDERICK SEABORNE SANDERSON' ing so as to control thedistribution of the Witnesses:

charge during the operation of the hy- MEDLINGTON BoDYcoMB,

draulic mechanism. W. J. S. THOMPSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

